Last year, our Focus on Slovenia highlighted problems in the distribution-exhibition sector. The decreasing attendance was in a large part attributed to poor relations between the leading distributor Blitz Video & Film Distribution, which handles titles of Warner Bros. and Fox, and the biggest multiplex chain Kolosej. In autumn 2013, Blitz has quit providing Kolosej with its titles, but in January this year, the two companies finally came to an understanding and Blitz releases are again being screened in Kolosej cinemas. This is especially important because key city Ljubljana accounts for 24% of overall attendance, most of it coming from the Kolosej multiplex and its 14 screens.

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Expectedly, in 2015 the box office was again driven by Hollywood fare, led by Universal’s Minions, Fifty Shades of Grey and Fast and Furious7, distributed by Karantanija. These films took the first three positions on the annual chart, with Shaun the Sheep[+see also: trailermaking offilm profile] as the best positioned European majority title at the tenth rank. The US films market share was 78%, and the European ones’ 18,24%.

After the biggest attendance decline in Europe in 2014, of 20,8%, the situation improved slightly and cumulative admissions for all titles on release rose from 1,929,161 to 2,101,500. However, the BO share of national films came down to only 2,81%, with the only significant result coming from Jan Cvitkovič’s Šiška Deluxe[+see also: trailerfilm profile] and its 15,101 admissions.

The third highest local grosser, with 5,673 tickets, was the horror flick Idyll[+see also: film reviewtrailerfilm profile] by first-time feature writer, director and editor Tomaž Gorkič. The film unexpectedly won Vesna Awards for best film, best supporting actor for Jurij Drevenšek, best supporting actress for Nika Rozman, and best production design for Gregor Navrtnik at the Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorose.

The low market share for local films could evolve in 2016, with potential hits coming up. The most promising one is Nika[+see also: trailerfilm profile] by Slobodan Maksimović, a youth drama about a teenage girl, a go-kart driver, which will have its world premiere at the Zlin Film Festival. Youth-oriented films scored big numbers for local industry in the past five years, most of all Miha Hočevar’s Going Our Way (2010) and its sequel (2013) with almost 240,000 admissions combined, and Maksimović’s previous feature, comedy Thanks For Sunderland[+see also: film reviewfilm profile], produced by national broadcaster RTV Slovenija, which did well in cinemas in 2013 with 21,137 admissions, and later had strong TV exposure.

Another possible local box-office booster could be Igor Šterk’s coming-of-age adventure Come Along[+see also: trailerfilm profile], about four 13-year olds who get lost in the mountains. On the international festival circuit, Šiška Deluxe had a strong run in Europe and won the audience award at the Cottbus Festival of Eastern European Cinema, while Vlado Škafar’s poetic docudrama Mother[+see also: film reviewtrailerinterview: Vlado Škafarfilm profile] world-premiered in Rotterdam’s Bright Future section.

Through his company Arsmedia, Slovenian producer Boštjan Ikovic co-produced Family Film[+see also: film reviewtrailerinterview: Olmo Omerzufilm profile], directed by Slovenian-born and Prague-based Olmo Omerzu, which world-premiered at San Sebastian and is still going strong on the festival circuit. Ikovic is also present in Cannes as one of the European Film Promotion’s Cannes Producers on the Move.

This year, Slovenia will present its first ever film selected for the Cannes Classics programme: a newly restored version of France Štiglic’s Valley of Peace, which was in Cannes competition in 1957, and garnered the Best Actor award to John Kitzmiller.

The Slovenian Film Centre is still trying to push the proposal for a 25% tax incentive through political and administrative barriers. Other current priorities are improvements on the distribution, script development and gender equality fronts, as well as introducing film literacy into school curriculum, according to SFC head Jožko Rutar.

A teen and family film about rebellion, conflicts, understanding, and love. Nika is a 17-year-old girl who loves racing go-karts, inspired by her father, a professional race driver who died in a car accident. Her mother is afraid that, after the death of her husband, she could also lose her only daughter. But her prohibition achieves the opposite of the desired effect. (World premiere: Zlin Film Festival 2016, Domestic theatrical release: Autumn 2016)

A mosaic of fates, depicting the experience of human life in all its depth of emotions, in all of its sensual, memorial and ideological wealth. It is a collage of moments we are unwilling or incapable to discuss, a mosaic of memories and secrets we keep to ourselves. An homage to life at its toughest. A shameless compilation of stories about them – and us. (Expected theatrical release: 2017)

Late at night, a renowned lawyer is found on the pavement of a busy street in Ljubljana. He is half conscious and his body is bleeding from numerous dog bites. Doctors at the Medical Centre are fighting for his life, while his wife is coping with the shock and her deepest fears. In the course of the night, she breaks all of the noral principles she had advocated all her life. (Expected theatrical release: 2017)

In search of the best photo from a school competition, four 13-year-old pupils head to remote hills. The competition for awards turns into a fight for survival. A story about growing up, love, friendship and heroism. The warm but suspenseful and sometimes spine-chilling film focuses on what happens in today’s world when technology stops working and the “primal” human instincts come to light. (Expected theatrical release: 2017)

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